1. out of band
[from telecommunications and network theory] 1. In software, describes values of a function which are not in its
‘natural’ range of return values, but are rather signals that
some kind of exception has occurred. Many C functions, for example, return
a nonnegative integral value, but indicate failure with an out-of-band
return value of −1. Compare hidden flag,
green bytes, fence. 2. Also sometimes used to describe what communications people call
shift characters, such as the ESC
that leads control sequences for many terminals, or the level shift
indicators in the old 5-bit Baudot codes. 3. In personal communication, using methods other than email, such
as telephones or snail-mail.
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Definitions of out of band
